Poor conditions
Slovakia: Thousands of doctors quit in protest
Slovakian hospital doctors are rebelling against the government's austerity program, which includes a partial withdrawal of previously promised salary increases. More than 2,700 doctors have already handed in their resignations in protest.
They only want to withdraw their resignations if the government meets a series of demands. These include better equipment for hospitals, the recruitment of additional staff and the 9.7 percent salary increase announced by the previous government.
The doctors' union is particularly outraged by the government's plan to convert hospitals into public limited companies. This is a step towards "creeping privatization", the doctors' representatives fear.
Health Minister resigned at the beginning of October
So far, no agreement has been reached with the new Minister of Health, Kamil Sasko. "It seems that the Slovakian healthcare system will only move if we really resign," Peter Visolajsky, chairman of the LOZ doctors' union, told journalists in Bratislava on Tuesday. Sasko's predecessor Zuzana Dolinkova had resigned at the beginning of October. She had justified this by saying that her government was not giving her enough support in strengthening the financially starved healthcare system.
The three-party government under left-wing nationalist Prime Minister Robert Fico emphasized that the previous government had made "untenable" financial commitments and that these now had to be corrected.
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